Author: chicagoinquirer

by Andrew Seligman LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Down by 11 and facing a fourth-and-8 in their own territory late in last week’s wild-card game, the Chicago Bears needed a big play from Caleb Williams. He had a Michael Jordan moment. Williams’ spectacular throw to Rome Odunze kept a touchdown drive going and helped the Bears rally to beat the Green Bay Packers 31-27 after trailing by 18 on Saturday night. Now, after winning a playoff game for the first time in 15 years, Chicago faces another big challenge. The Bears host Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams in the…

CHICAGO (AP) — Nikola Vucevic made a tiebreaking layup with 4 seconds remaining, and the Chicago Bulls overcame Brice Sensabaugh’s career-high 43 points to beat the Utah Jazz 128-126 on Wednesday night. Vucevic scored 35 points to lead the Bulls, who had five reserves finish in double figures. Isaac Okoro was the only other starter in double figures with 12 points for a Bulls team playing without Josh Giddey because of strained left hamstring. Sensabaugh scored 21 in the first quarter, the most by a player off the bench in the period since play-by-play tracking for all four quarters began…

by Steve Karnowski, Alanna Durkin Richer and Hallie Golden MINNEAPOLIS — A federal officer shot a man in the leg in Minneapolis after being attacked with a shovel and broom handle, further heightening the sense of fear and anger radiating across the city a week after an immigration agent fatally shot a woman in the head. Smoke filled the street Wednesday night near the site of the latest shooting as federal officers wearing gas masks and helmets fired tear gas into a small crowd while protesters threw rocks and shot fireworks. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said during a news…

by Bridget Brown and by Michael Warren CHICAGO, ILPresident Donald Trump said Wednesday that anything less than U.S. control of Greenland is “unacceptable,” hours before Vice President JD Vance was to host Danish and Greenlandic officials for talks. In a post on his social media site, Trump reiterated his argument that the U.S. “needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security.” He added that “NATO should be leading the way for us to get it” and that otherwise, Russia or China would. “NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote.…

by John Gambrell and Julia Nikhinson DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  — U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that Iran proposed negotiations after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown targeting demonstrators there, a move coming as activists said the death toll in protests rose to at least 544. Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of…

by Rebecca Santana MINNEAPOLIS  — Thousands of people marched in Minneapolis on Saturday to protest the fatal shooting of a woman by a federal immigration officer there and the shooting of two people in Portland, Oregon. Minnesota leaders urged demonstrators to remain peaceful. The protest was one of hundreds planned for towns and cities across the country over the weekend. It came in a city on edge since the killing of Renee Good on Wednesday by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. “We’re all living in fear right now,” said Meghan Moore, a mother of two from Minneapolis who joined…

by Jay Cohen CHICAGO  — At the very end of his seventh season as Green Bay’s coach, Matt LaFleur saw a team that lacked composure at big moments in a playoff game. It was an all-too-familiar scene for the Packers — one that will follow LaFleur for a long time. “We’ve got to look at it. We’ve got to talk. There’s a lot of pieces,” he said. “All you’re trying to do in the moment is, when mistakes are made, you’re correcting them. There’s not long discussions on the sideline. It’s just you correct the mistakes and you try to…

by Andrew Seligman CHICAGO — Caleb Williams came through in his playoff debut, throwing a go-ahead, 25-yard touchdown pass to DJ Moore with 1:43 remaining, and the Chicago Bears rallied from an 18-point deficit to beat the rival Green Bay Packers 31-27 in a wild-card playoff game on Saturday night. The NFC North champion Bears (12-6) extended their resurgent first season under coach Ben Johnson with their seventh fourth-quarter comeback victory. They split two down-to-the-wire games with Green Bay in the regular season, and this one turned out to be a thriller when it looked like it would be a…

CHICAGO  — Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards was carted off the field with a left ankle injury in the first half of Saturday night’s playoff game against the Green Bay Packers. Edwards went down early in the second quarter after his left foot got caught up with the leg of Packers receiver Christian Watson and bent awkwardly. He was fitted with an air cast before he was carted away. The Bears said Edwards would not return. The 29-year-old Edwards was limited to 10 games during the regular season because of injuries. He returned an interception 34 yards for a touchdown in…

by Stephen Groves WASHINGTON  — For House Republicans, the political year started with a pep rallyof sorts as President Donald Trump gathered them at Washington’s Kennedy Center for a stemwinder of a speech. But by the time lawmakers had completed their first week of work this midterm election year, fractures in the party were already showing. From pushback to Trump’s self-described “Donroe doctrine” of aggression in the Western Hemisphere to breaks in party unity over health care, Republican lawmakers are displaying signs of independence from Trump after spending much of the last year acquiescing to his practically every demand. It…